This guest blog is written by Robert Blair of Leland, ID. Robert has a 1500 acre farm where he and his wife, Rhonda, raise their two sons, Logan and Dillon. Robert is the Nez Perce County Farm Bureau President and the State Director for the Nez Perce County Grain Growers. Robert was the 2009 Precision Farmer of the year and is the 2011 Eisenhower Fellow in Agriculture. He is also a University of Idaho Grad.
It seems like there is a perennial discussion about farm subsidies, especially as we prepare for another Farm Bill. What seems to be a weed to some is a crop to others, depending upon which side of the fence you are on (and how green it is on your side.)
Subsidies for the most part are looked down upon by the public because of bad press and lack of understanding. There are also growers who feel that subsidies should be done away with similar to pull combines and stationary threshers. However, there are growers out there where subsidies are the difference between staying on the farm or finding a job in town.
In my experience, the farmers that want subsidies dropped like a hot branding iron are the ones that have plenty of money, usually from a source outside of the farm. They understand if subsidies are cut, their operation has the potential to grow in acres. They are greedy, capitalist, pigs - and as well they should be. God Bless America.
But what are subsidies? Farmers do not pay the full price for crop insurance; there are usually tax exemptions in fuel, personal property, and sales tax that could eat up money, and farm loans. Do the farmers that want them cut really understand the depth in which their operation is subsidized? Subsidies help the U.S. compete with other countries that put on tariffs or use subsidies to keep out U.S. products. To take it one more step, subsidies help to ensure a stable and reliable agricultural industry.
We Americans pay the lowest cost for food of any country in the world, thanks to subsidies and the strength of American agriculture. Everyone, from farmers to their city cousins, needs to realize what the future of agriculture is looking at. Most experts say that current global ag production needs to double by the year 2050. This is no small task.
How is a shrinking population segment in America, and the world, supposed to meet this new task? For generations, members of farm families have decided to give up the long hours and hard work for a more “secure” job in town or within agriculture. Agriculture is losing the youngest generations to the bright lights and bustle of town while the older generation, which grew up on a farm and knew how to do anything, is dying off. Who is going to fill their shoes? I don’t see any of the critics rushing out to a field near you any time soon.
As the fight for the next Farm Bill takes place, the same arguments will come out about subsidies. Do we need them or should we let them go? If we let them go, how many farmers will be lost in the following decade? I don’t know the answer, but I get chills thinking about it.
If we lose the number of farmers in America, who will, and how many will, be left to sign onto a letter fighting environmental activists and their ilk? I have yet to see any of the farmers that call for dropping subsidies serve on boards or committees in my area. What a shame for those farmers to be relying on subsidized farmers to do their dirty work in the halls of the Legislature or Congress.
Also, I have never heard of the farmers that criticize subsidies giving them back or donating them to charity. I have never heard of them paying extra fuel or sales taxes or paying the non-subsidized rate for crop insurance. If I am mistaken, please provide me with the proof of purchase.
For the time being I am for keeping farm subsidies until there are no trade barriers, real or artificial, left in the world. Ag needs everyone one out there to help keep the wolves and tree huggers from the door. Until everyone fully understands the ramifications of removing subsidies, they should thank all U.S. agriculture at every meal.
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